http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04267/383838.stm
Push afoot to land Lufthansa
Thursday, September 23, 2004
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A group affiliated with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development is putting together an aggressive campaign to recruit the German carrier Lufthansa to fly from Pittsburgh to Frankfurt after US Airways drops the route next month.
The Regional Air Service Partnership, a 14-member group formed in January, is lobbying the area's businesses to commit their trans-Atlantic travel to Lufthansa and to help raise at least $300,000 to assist the airline with marketing and advertising.
In a Sept. 17 letter to area businesses, Dan Booker, the partnership's chairman, noted that the Allegheny County Airport Authority has already committed $400,000 in reduced landing fees, facility discounts and other incentives to try to land the carrier.
"Our region is not alone in competing for Lufthansa service," Booker wrote. "Other markets, such as Denver, Portland [Ore.] and Phoenix, have offered incentive packages totaling $1 [million] to $2 million in the past."
Booker said Lufthansa airline expects to hear what the region has to offer by Oct. 1.
Airport Authority Executive Director Kent George said the authority's incentive package was available to any carrier interested in starting international service. It was put together in response to the decision by US Airways to end its nonstop service to London and Frankfurt by Nov. 7, since moved up a week early to Oct. 29.
The authority also has been offering for the last 18 months to two years reduced landing fees and other incentives to domestic carriers that expand service here or offer new flights from Pittsburgh, George said.
Ronnie Bryant, president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, the region's primary economic marketing agency, said the initial response to the Air Service Partnership's campaign had been good.
Letters were sent to hundreds of businesses, asking them to make pledges or commitments by tomorrow. They are being asked to donate to the marketing fund and to write a letter to Lufthansa outlining their trans-Atlantic travel needs to Frankfurt and other European cities and committing that travel to Lufthansa if the airline starts service here.
"We want to show Lufthansa that we have businesses that will use the service," Bryant said.
Lufthansa spokeswoman Jennifer Urbaniak confirmed that Pittsburgh was among the cities the airline is considering for service.
She said it should have a decision by March, and that commitments by businesses in the region to fly Lufthansa could only help in the courting of the airline. "If there's a strong demand for business travel, then we're certainly going to look at that," she said.
Charlotte, N.C., beat out Pittsburgh in March for a Lufthansa flight to Munich by offering to market the new connection and helping to research international flight patterns out of that city. Businesses there also pledged to fly Lufthansa.
Booker said in his letter that the Air Service Partnership was concentrating on the Frankfurt route because it believes it's "our best hope for regaining trans-Atlantic service in the short run."